Yesterday I posted about cleaning the inside of the windshield. And today? My approach to cleaning the outside of the windshield. Well, not my approach. The approach that I follow. I use the same approach for my car as I do for the coach. The only difference is that it takes a lot more time to clean the windshield of the coach. Oh, and there are ladders involved with the coach.

Cleaning the exterior windshield is a four-step process:

Clean the windshield thoroughly with an automotive glass cleaner like Invisible Glass. I usually wash and dry the front cap first and then use the cleaner. Apply with a microfiber cloth using random circular motions. Buff out in an up and down motion. Given the size of the windshield, I generally place my ladder in four positions to clean. By necessity, I have to work in smaller sections.

Clay the windshield. The video suggests using hot water. I use a detailing spray, Griot’s Speed Shine. The important point is to have some lubrication for the clay to do its work. Wipe of the excess spray with a microfiber cloth.

Clean the windshield again as in step 1.

Wax the windshield. I, however, do not use wax. I use Griot’s Glass Sealant. The application process is a bit different as the sealant gets applied two times. One coat applied, buffed and then a second coat applied, buffed. If you follow the video, you will only apply one coat of wax.

And that’s it.

Now go and enjoy those amazing panoramic views through a super clean windshield.

The video is from ChrisFix. His videos really helped me in my quest to get a super clean windshield.

Dirty windshields. They really bother me. And for years, I’ve tried lots of different approaches to getting them really clean. All have fallen short for me until I came across this video:

This is basically the approach:

Use a clean microfiber cloth and, with a circular motion, wipe down the interior windshield. I break the windshield down into more manageable sections because the Castaway has a really, really big windshield. Once a section is wiped down, turn the cloth to an unused section and wipe down again in an up and down motion.

Use the secret ingredient to get the inside of that windshield really clean: Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. I’ve also used the original Magic Eraser and it works just fine. Apply using circular motions. Once done, quickly grab a clean microfiber cloth and dry the windshield off using circular motions.

Then take your favourite automotive glass cleaner — mine is Invisible Glass — and, with a clean microfiber cloth, use circular motions to apply the product to the windshield. Buff using a clean part of the cloth in an up and down motion

I am astonished at how clean it makes the windshield. It takes a bit of time to get the windshield of the coach detailed but on a nice sunny day, it is wonderful to look out of a windshield devoid of any haze or streaks on the interior.

http://rvcastaways.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/RVCastawaysLogo340x156-300x138.png00Richardhttp://rvcastaways.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/RVCastawaysLogo340x156-300x138.pngRichard2016-09-12 20:33:112016-09-12 20:33:11How to Clean the Inside of a Windshield

Being able to work with the mirrors of our coach has been a bit of a learning experience. Seeing what is happening around the coach is critically important. It took me a bit of time to learn the best way to position and adjust our mirrors.

The mirror on the passenger side of our coach extends in front of our motorhome.

Apparently, most coaches have this mirror set incorrectly.

The best way to check is to stand in front of the coach and look down the passenger side. The inside of the head of the mirror should look like it is just touching the coach. When it is set flush to the side of the coach, you get the best overall view. When we received our coach, our mirror was set in too far.

The mirror on the driver’s side of our coach is swung around to the back.

A number of Dutch Star owners do not like this look. They think it lacks symmetry and some people have rotated the mirror forward. The driver’s side mirror is on a short arm so I am not sure how well it would truly balance the look of the coach. I also wonder whether the corner post would get in the way when positioning the mirror properly. I suspect that Newmar went with the short arm for a reason: to maximize visibility and to give the driver’s side a bit more maneuvering room.

My driver’s side mirror remains swung around to the back. The mirror is aligned in the same fashion as the passenger side mirror so that when I look at the mirror from the front, it looks as though it is just touching the coach.

With the mirror heads positioned properly, there are a few additional adjustments.

With the flat part of the mirror, I move it until I can just make out the side of the coach along the inside edge. I do not need to see very much of the side of the coach with my flat mirror. I adjust the flat part of the mirror so that I can see the horizon at about one quarter of the way down. I do not need to see a lot of sky when driving.

With the convex part of the mirror, I adjust it so that I can see out horizontally to the ground and the side of the coach.

I’m still learning how to drive confidently with the mirrors. I use them far more frequently that I would ever use the mirrors of a car. And that makes them far more important for driving safely.

Let’s assume that a 200-horsepower engine is needed to accelerate a vehicle to 65 mph in one minute. For that vehicle to come to an emergency stop in 6 seconds (one-tenth of the time it took to reach 65 mph) requires 10 times the acceleration force, or 2,000 horsepower. Chassis builders take this into consideration when designing a braking system and determining a chassis’ gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR).

However, if the brake on just one wheel is out of adjustment or not operating, up to 25 percent of braking capability can be lost. Therefore, to ensure safe motorhome operation, the braking system should be tested regularly.

For someone whose driving style leans toward heavy engine brake usage and minimal service brake usage, chances are good the service brakes will not be in proper adjustment and won’t be very effective when they are needed most.

I tend to lean toward heavy engine brake usage and minimal service brake usage. Checking the air brakes is an important part of our Pre-trip Inspection.

This is my approach to testing our air brakes which is based on the air brake training that Lorraine and I did for our commercial driver’s license.

1. Make sure the coach is secure with the parking brake engaged

(In our training, we were told to also use a wheel chock. For our coach I do not chock any of the wheels)

2. Test the low air warning indicator

Ensure air pressure is over 90 PSI, if not build air pressure

Engine off, key on

Pump the service brakes

Warning at 65 PSI is good

Warning below 55 PSI is defective

3. Test air pressure build

Start Engine and run between 600-900 RPM

Reduce air pressure to 90 PSI

Time from 90 PSI to 120 PSI

Less than 30 seconds is good

More than 30 seconds vehicle is defective

4. Test air pressure governor settings

Build air pressure to maximum and note cut-out pressure

Cut-out must be between 120 PSI and 135 PSI

120 PSI is good

More than 135 PSI is defective

Pump down pressure 20 to 30 PSI until compressor cuts-in

Cut-in should be at 100 PSI

100 PSI is good

Less than 90 PSI is defective

5. Test air loss rate

Release parking brake

Apply service brake and shut engine off, key on

Time for 1 minute and note any loss of air pressure

1 or 2 PSI loss is good

More than 3 PSI loss in pressure is defective

Re-engage parking brake

6. Test parking brake

Ensure parking brake is engaged

Start engine, select drive

Attempt to move the coach forward

Parking brake holds is good

If coach moves than parking brake is defective

7. Drain air tanks

(Our coach is equipped with automatic moisture ejectors so I don’t do this step every time)

We had a power failure. I know when it happened. My son called me at 3:51 in the morning. Again at 3:52. And again at 3:53.

Now it is doubtful that I would have woken up from a deep sleep at that time of the morning. More so when you consider that the smartphone he was calling was charging in our house and I was blissfully asleep out in our coach.

Our son was awakened when all of the “gee we just lost power” alarms starting buzzing from our various technology devices. A veritable cacophony of urgent alerts. I think he was annoyed. He needed others to share his joy of waking up in the middle of the night.

My son decided to exit the house, walk out to the coach and wake us up.

“Power’s gone!”

Aside from notifying the utilities company, there wasn’t much I could do about the power outage.

The coach had gracefully switched from shore power to battery power. I wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing or not. I decided to activate the generator instead. The energy management system then automatically switched over to the generator.

This got me to thinking about the auto genset feature of our Magnum inverter. I seem to recall reading something about the generator automatically starting when a certain condition was met, like a shore power outage or when the batteries discharged to a certain level.

For our power outage, I just went ahead and turned the generator on myself. I ran it for a couple of hours. By the time I woke up at around 6am, power had been restored to the house and we had shore power available to the coach. Off went the generator.

The Magnum inverter is still very much a black box to me. I did read the manual but it was not very helpful. Lots and lots of settings. Very few tutorials.

This video, on the other hand, helped me better understand the Magnum inverter and how it works. Very cool device.